Facilitating a Requirements
Discovery Session


learning points | content

Would You Like To:

  • Facilitate your next project’s business requirements discovery session confident in the application of the Best Business Requirements Practices™ approach?
  • Be seen as an "enabler" to the success of your next project?
  • Build a business "partnership" with your users and do it right from the start?
  • Be part of a core of "experts" to help on other projects, or to coach & mentor others?

In a three-day hands-on workshop, you will learn & practice practical techniques and skills to elicit user requirements using Best Business Requirements Practices™ (BBRP)

Comments From Some Clients:

"It was incredible to see a process that our business management actually enjoyed yielding a real and usable spec."

"We actually produced a requirements specification at the end of a 3-day session, which we reviewed with our clients "the next day". This process is very impressive!"

Participants Will Learn How To:

  • Identify clients’ business needs easily, without needing to be a subject matter expert
  • Conduct fast and efficient analysis – maximizing the limited time and resources of the company
  • Identify true user requirements versus nice-to-have solutions
  • Deal with managers and users in their terms – and complete a business requirement specification that’s ready for design, development or sourcing software

In this course you learn from the experts, through examples, hands-on workshops and role-plays exactly how to manage and conduct a Requirements Discovery Session. Here you get to apply all the tools & techniques of orchestrating a successful session.

Now you can do it with confidence!

What’s our Difference

  • Other facilitation courses teach you only the "soft skills" required to be an effective facilitator.
  • Here you have the opportunity to learn about your own strengths and develop strategies to overcome potential weaknesses.
  • Practice, practice & more practice. That’s what it takes to be really good. But you also need to be practicing the "right" things, guided by someone who is experienced. This is exactly the learning environment you’ll experience.

Course Content

In three fast-paced and interactive days we will cover the How-To’s of performing quality business requirements analysis using – Best Business Requirements Practices™ (BBRP):

The Requirements Discovery Session & The Facilitator

  • What is a Discovery Session?

  • Why a Discovery Session?

  • The Role of a Facilitator

  • Facilitation Fundamentals

  • The Key Objectives of Facilitating a Discovery Session

  • How to Fail Fast

Preparing For A Session

  • Hold a pre-session meeting with the Client

  • Identify and understand the Client expectations

  • Establish commitment and buy-in with the various parties

  • Meet with the IT Project Team to review strategies and approach

  • Schedule the session

  • Arrange the room logistics & equipment

  • Be grounded in the process

Beginning the Session

  • Complete the Room Set-up

  • Ease Participant Pre-Session Tension/Anxiety

  • The Opening Statement

  • Explain the Objectives, Outcome & Session Focus

  • Explain the Parking Lots

  • Setup the Session Key Success Factors

  • Explain/Demonstrate the Process

Conducting the Session

  • Questioning

  • Listening

  • Modeling

  • Representing/Restating/Reviewing

  • Managing Group Dynamics

  • Encouraging/Involving/Motivating/Stimulating/Exciting

  • Leading the Process

  • Seven Factors to Successful Facilitation

Describing Objectives & Scope

  • Using Project/Session Objectives

  • Context Diagramming

  • Scoping Scenarios

  • Activity, Object Lists & Work sheets

Discovering the Functional Requirements:

  • Eliciting Functional Requirements

  • Using Diagramming Tools

  • Using Scenarios

  • Tricks of the Trade

Eliciting the Information Requirements

  • Modeling Information, Data and Objects

  • Tips, Guidelines and Traps

Finishing the Session

  • End of Day Activities

  • End of Session Activities

  • Overview of Documentation Objectives

  • Peer Review & Refinement of the Document

  • SME Review & Refinement of the Document

 


CONTACT US

1-800-209-3616

Copyright © 1999 The Information Architecture Group
and The Information Architecture Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved